National income accounting attributes and economic welfare. Evidence from Pakistan.

Economic welfare is essential in the modern economy since it directly reflects the standard of living, distribution of resources, and general social satisfaction, which influences individual and social well-being. This study aims to explore the relationship between national income accounting different attributes and the economic welfare in Pakistan. However, this study used data from 1950 to 2022, and data was downloaded from the World Bank data portal. Regression analysis is used to investigate the relationship between them and is very effective in measuring the relationship between endogenous and exogenous variables. Moreover, generalized methods of movement (GMM) are used as the robustness of the regression. Our results show that foreign direct investment outflow, Gross domestic product growth rate, GDP per capita, higher Interest, market capitalization, and population growth have a significant negative on the unemployment rate, indicating the rise in these factors leads to a decrease in the employment rate in Pakistan. Trade and savings have a significant positive impact on the unemployment rate, indicating the rise in these factors leads to an increase in the unemployment rate for various reasons. Moreover, all the factors of national income accounting have a significant positive relationship with life expectancy, indicating that an increase in these factors leads to an increase in economic welfare and life expectancy due to better health facilities, many resources, and correct economic policies. However, foreign direct investment, inflation rate, lending interest rate, and population growth have significant positive effects on age dependency, indicating these factors increase the age dependency. Moreover, GDP growth and GDP per capita negatively impact age dependency. Similarly, all the national income accounting factors have a significant negative relationship with legal rights that leads to decreased legal rights. Moreover, due to better health facilities and health planning, there is a negative significant relationship between national income accounting attributes and motility rate among children. Our study advocated the implications for the policymakers and the government to make policies for the welfare and increase the social factors.

Impact of eliminating retirement earnings test on labor supply and pension benefit claims.

This study explores the hypothetical elimination of Japan's retirement earnings test (ET) for public pensions, focusing on its implications for older workers' labor supply and pension-claiming behaviors. The ET currently reduces public pension benefits for individuals aged 65 and older if their earnings exceed specified thresholds, potentially discouraging employment in this demographic. Notably, the Japanese ET influences both immediate and future pension benefits, thus diminishing current payouts for working pensioners and foregoing beneficial actuarial adjustments-adjustments based on actuarial calculations that would otherwise increase future benefits to account for delayed pension claims. This dual impact may discourage the labor supply and influence pension-claiming behavior among older workers. Through a survey-based experiment with male workers aged 40-59 years expected to face the ET upon retirement, we assess three reform scenarios as the first study in the literature: (1) eliminating future benefit reductions through actuarial adjustments, thereby enhancing the value of deferred pension claims; (2) removing immediate benefit suspensions to increase current pension payments directly; and (3) a comprehensive reform combining both approaches. Our findings reveal that eliminating reductions through actuarial adjustments increases the intensive margin (labor hours and income) and encourages delayed pension claims. Conversely, removing immediate benefit suspensions influences both the extensive margin (decision to work) and the intensive margin but leads to earlier pension claims. By highlighting the importance of differentiating between immediate and future benefit components in designing ET reforms, this study demonstrates their significant impact on labor supply and pension-claiming decisions.

Cost of lost productivity in inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis in the year before and after diagnosis: An inception cohort study.

AIM: Existing studies on the cost of inflammatory arthritis (IA) and osteoarthritis (OA) are often cross-sectional and/or involve patients with various disease durations, thus not providing a comprehensive perspective on the cost of illness from the time of diagnosis. In this study, we therefore assessed the cost of lost productivity in an inception cohort of patients with IA and OA in the year before and after diagnosis. METHODS: Employment status, monthly income, days absent from work, and presenteeism were collected at diagnosis and 1 year later to estimate the annual costs of unemployment, absenteeism, and presenteeism using human capital approach. Non-parametric bootstrapping was performed to account for the uncertainty of the estimated costs. RESULTS: Compared to patients with OA (n = 64), patients with IA (n = 102, including 48 rheumatoid arthritis, 19 spondyloarthritis, 23 psoriatic arthritis, and 12 seronegative IA patients) were younger (mean age: 52.3 vs. 59.5 years) with a greater proportion receiving treatment (99.0% vs. 67.2%) and a greater decrease in presenteeism score (median: 15% vs 10%) 1 year after diagnosis. Annual costs of absenteeism and presenteeism were lower in patients with IA than those with OA both in the year before (USD566 vs. USD733 and USD8,472 vs. USD10,684, respectively) and after diagnosis (USD636 vs. USD1,035 and USD6,866 vs. USD9,362, respectively). CONCLUSION: Both IA and OA impose substantial cost of lost productivity in the year before and after diagnosis. The greater improvement in productivity seen in patients with IA suggests that treatment for IA improves work productivity.

Parents' attitudes towards the No Jab No Play legislation in Western Australia: a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Mandates provide a relatively cost-effective strategy to increase vaccinate rates. Since 2014, five Australian states have implemented No Jab No Play (NJPlay) policies that require children to be fully immunised to attend early childhood education and childcare services. In Western Australia, where this study was conducted, NJNPlay legislation was enacted in 2019. While most Australian families support vaccine mandates, there are a range of complexities and unintended consequences for some families. This research explores the impact on families of the NJNPlay legislation in Western Australia (WA). METHODS: This mixed-methods study used an online parent/carer survey (n = 261) representing 427 children and in-depth interviews (n = 18) to investigate: (1) the influence of the NJNPlay legislation on decision to vaccinate; and (2) the financial and emotional impacts of NJNPlay legislation. Descriptive and bivariate tests were used to analyse the survey data and open-ended questions and interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to capture the experience and the reality of participants. RESULTS: Approximately 60% of parents intended to vaccinate their child. Parents who had decided not to vaccinate their child/ren were significantly more likely to experience financial [p < 0.001] and emotional impacts [p < 0.001], compared to those who chose to vaccinate because of the mandate. Qualitative data were divided with around half of participants supporting childhood immunisation and NJNPlay with others discussing concerns. The themes (a) belief in the importance of vaccination and ease of access, (b) individual and community protection, and (c) vaccine effectiveness, safety and alternatives help understand how parents' beliefs and access may influence vaccination uptake. Unintended impacts of NJNPlay included: (a) lack of choice, pressure and coercion to vaccinate; (b) policy and community level stigma and discrimination; (c) financial and career impacts; and (d) loss of education opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: Parents appreciation of funded immunisation programs and mandates which enhance individual and community protection was evident. However for others unintended consequences of the mandate resulted in significant social, emotional, financial and educational impacts. Long-term evidence highlights the positive impact of immunisation programs. Opinions of impacted families should be considered to alleviate mental health stressors.

The impact of China's value-added tax credit refunds on enterprise labor demand: Ex-ante analysis and ex-post test.

This paper aims to explore the impact of China's value-added tax (VAT) credit refunds policy on the enterprises' labor demand through a paradigm combining ex-ante analysis and ex-post test. By introducing the VAT credit refunds into the production-decision model of the enterprise, calibrating the parameters and conducting the dynamic effects tests using the data of Chinese A-share listed enterprises, this paper finds that the labor employment of the pilot enterprises exhibits a V-shaped fluctuation trend. In the initial implementation of the policy, due to the existence of layoff costs, iso-cost line of the enterprise bends, which results in that the enterprise with a capital-labor substitution elasticity greater than 1 will not reduce labor hiring, as it has already deployed labor force before the implementation of the policy. When the enterprise enter the next production cycle where the labor force can be freely allocated, the labor employment of the enterprise with a capital-labor elasticity of substitution greater than 1 will decline compared to that without the policy. In the long run, as output increases, the labor demand will recover. The results of ex-post test are consistent with that of the ex-ante analysis. Additionally, heterogeneity test reveals that the greater the elasticity of capital-labor substitution of the sub-industry is, the more severe the degree of the V-shaped fluctuation is. Following the implementation of the policy, the continuous increase in enterprise output and capital stock verifies the relevant transmission mechanism. This study provides a more detailed perspective for comprehensively understanding the impact of VAT credit refunds policy on employment.

Socioeconomic impact and sufficiency of government financial support during COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective study.

This study examines the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sufficiency of government support. Based on an online survey with 920 respondents, the cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression results show: firstly, in terms of loss of income, male respondents are more likely to have a loss of income as compared to female counterparts, and secondly, among different categories of employment status, the self-employed respondents are the most vulnerable group, given that more than 20 percent of them experienced loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, respondents working in small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and the informal sector are more likely to face loss of income as compared to respondents working in other sectors of employment. Likewise, respondents without tertiary education level are more likely to have a loss of income as compared to respondents with university certification. The baseline results highlight the insufficiency of government financial support programs based on the perspective of Malaysians from different demographic backgrounds. As a policy implication, the findings could guide the State in formulating the right policies for target groups who need more assistance than others in the community.

The effects of digital economy development on social insurance funds revenue: Evidence from China.

China has experienced rapid development in the digital economy. Using data from 30 provinces in China between 2011 and 2017, this paper constructs a two-way fixed effects model to study the effects and mechanisms of the digital economy development on social insurance funds revenue. An increase of one unit in digital economy development led to a 0.56% increase in basic endowment insurance funds revenue and a 0.33% increase in basic health insurance funds revenue. The digital economy increased the social insurance funds revenue by promoting employment and increasing income. Furthermore, the effects of digital economic development on social insurance funds revenue were heterogeneous for different levels of economic development and urbanization. The conclusions stood after robustness tests by changing the method of weighting the digital economy indicators and using instrumental variables. This paper confirmed the positive role of the development of the digital economy in increasing the revenue of social insurance funds from the perspective of quantitative research and explored the mechanisms in depth. In order to increase social insurance funds revenue, it is essential to accelerate the development of the digital economy, especially in regions with lower economic development and urbanization, and to address the needs of the technically unemployed and those engaged in flexible employment.

Economic returns to reproducing parents' field of study.

Research on the influence of family background on college graduates' earnings has not considered the importance of the match between parents' and children's field of study. Using a novel design based on within-family comparisons, I examine long-term earnings returns to reproducing parents' field of study in Denmark. I find that individuals whose field of study matches that of a parent have earnings that are 2 percent higher than those of their siblings with college degrees in different fields, on average. Earnings returns to field inheritance are highest in the fields of law (9 percent), medicine (6 percent), and engineering (4 percent) and are driven mainly by income from self-employment. I find no direct evidence of nepotism as the earnings advantage does not arise from inheritance of parents' firms or employment in parents' occupational network. My findings indicate that, although a college degree generally equalizes family background differences in economic outcomes, there are additional payoffs to field inheritance, particularly in traditional fields characterized by a high degree of social closure and self-employment.

COVID-19 Economic and Academic Stress on Mexican American Adolescents' Psychological Distress: Parents as Essential Workers.

OBJECTIVES: In a sample of Mexican American adolescents (N = 398; 51% females; aged 13-17), we examined the associations between psychological distress, COVID-19 household economic stress, COVID-19 academic stress, and whether these associations varied by adolescents' gender and by parents/caregivers' essential worker status. METHOD: First, linear regression models assessed the main effects of household economic and academic stress on psychological distress. Second, the moderating effects of gender and parents/caregivers' essential worker status on the association between household economic and academic stress, and psychological distress were examined. Third, the three-way interaction effect of household economic stress, gender, and parents/caregivers' essential worker status on psychological distress as well as the three-way interaction effect of academic stress, gender, and parents/caregivers' essential worker status on psychological distress were calculated. RESULTS: Household economic and academic stress were associated with psychological distress. However, these associations did not vary based on adolescents' gender or parents/caregivers' essential worker status. The three-way interaction for household economic stress, parents/caregivers' essential worker status, and gender for psychological distress was significant. Specifically, the effects of household economic stress on psychological distress was worse for boys than girls whose parents/caregivers were essential workers. Furthermore, the three-way interaction among academic stress, parents/caregivers' essential worker status, and gender was significant. Particularly, the effects of academic stress when grades were worse on adolescents' psychological distress was worse for boys than girls whose parents/caregivers were essential workers. CONCLUSION: Parents/caregivers' essential worker status was salient among Mexican American adolescents' mental health outcomes during COVID-19, particularly for adolescent boys.

Sociodemographic inequities in unscheduled asthma care visits among public assistance recipients in Japan: additional risk by household composition among workers.

BACKGROUND: Public assistance programs aim to prevent financial poverty by guaranteeing a minimum income for basic needs, including medical care. However, time poverty also matters, especially in the medical care adherence of people with chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine the association between the dual burden of working and household responsibilities, with unscheduled asthma care visits among public assistance recipients in Japan. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included public assistance recipients from two municipalities. We obtained participants' sociodemographic data in January 2016 from the public assistance database and identified the incidence of asthma care visits. Participants' unscheduled asthma visits and the frequency of asthma visits were used as the outcome variables. Unscheduled visits were defined as visits by recipients who did not receive asthma care during the first three months of the observation period. Participants' age, sex, household composition, and work status were used as explanatory variables. Multiple Poisson regression analyses were performed to calculate the cumulative incidence ratio (IR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of unscheduled visits across the explanatory variables. The effect of modification on the work status by household composition was also examined. RESULTS: We identified 2,386 recipients at risk of having unscheduled visits, among which 121 patients (5.1%) had unscheduled visits. The multivariable Poisson regression revealed that the working recipients had a higher incidence of unscheduled visits than the non-working recipients (IR 1.44, 95% CI 1.00-2.07). Among working recipients, the IRs of unscheduled visits were higher among recipients cohabiting with adults (IR 1.90 95% CI 1.00-3.59) and with children (IR 2.35, 95% CI 1.11-4.95) than for recipients living alone. Among non-working recipients, the IRs of unscheduled visits were lower for recipients living with family (IR 0.74, 95% CI 0.41-1.35) and those living with children (IR 0.50, 95% CI 0.20-1.23). A higher frequency in asthma visits was observed among working recipients living with family. CONCLUSIONS: Working adults cohabiting with children are at the greatest risk of unscheduled visits among adults receiving public assistance. To support healthy lifestyles of public assistance recipients, medical care providers and policymakers should pay special attention to the potentially underserved populations.

Structural transformation and political economy: A new approach to inclusive growth.

The "Jobless growth" of Pakistan's economy and its acquaintances with frequent changes in different governments in power (both democratic and military regime) and its influence on economic growth persuades to conduct a qualitative analysis of the structural transformation on the disaggregated level to determine whether or not it has any connection or impact on different sectors of the economy. The fundamental objective of this study is to (a) explore how sectoral transformation has affected economic development and employment, as well as their relationships, and (b investigate how these dynamics have impacted the generation of sustainable employment in the economy. For this reason, the study takes sectoral transformation into account. The study applies the sectoral employment Elasticity technique for this objective. The results of our evaluation indicate that the economy functions better under military regimes than it does during democratic periods. The cause might be anything, but our goal is to determine the employment elasticity of Pakistan's main political powers. As an agriculture-based economy, most of the population relies on the agriculture sector; hence, its decline highlights the need for reforms. If this sector doesn't grow by creating additional jobs, it will lose its employment power.

Who would rescue the dilemma of Chinese elderly care? An evolutionary game analysis and simulation research on the formalization of the domestic service industry with subsidy policy.

Since China entered the aging society, the surging demand for elderly care and the industrial upgrading of "silver economy" has forced the domestic service industry to face endogenous challenges. Among them, the formalization of the domestic service industry can effectively reduce the transaction costs and risks of actors, innovate the endogenous vitality of the industry, and promote the improvement of elderly care quality through a triangular employment relationship. By constructing a tripartite asymmetric evolutionary game model of clients, domestic enterprises and governmental departments, this study uses the stability theorem of differential equations to explore the influencing factors and action paths of the system's evolutionary stable strategies (ESS), and uses the research data collected from China to assign values to models for simulation analysis. This study finds that the ratio of the initial ideal strategy, the difference between profits and costs, subsidies to clients, and subsidies or punishments for breach of contract to domestic enterprises are the key factors affecting the formalization of the domestic service industry. Subsidy policy programs can be divided into long-term and periodic programs, and there are differences in the influence paths and effects of the key factors in different situations. Increasing domestic enterprises' market share with employee management systems, formulating subsidy programs for clients, and setting up evaluation and supervision mechanisms are efficient ways through which to promote the formalization of the domestic service industry in China. Subsidy policy of governmental departments should focus on improving the professional skills and quality of elderly care domestic workers, and also encourage domestic enterprises with employee management systems at the same time, to expand the scope of service beneficiaries by running nutrition restaurants in communities, cooperating with elderly care institutions, etc.

Long COVID Linked With Unemployment in New Analysis.

This Medical News article discusses new research on the association between long COVID and employment status.

Racial and ethnic disparities in excess mortality among U.S. veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minorities among the general population in the United States; however, little is known regarding its impact on U.S. military Veterans. In this study, our objectives were to identify the extent to which Veterans experienced increased all-cause mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic, stratified by race and ethnicity. DATA SOURCES: Administrative data from the Veterans Health Administration's Corporate Data Warehouse. STUDY DESIGN: We use pre-pandemic data to estimate mortality risk models using five-fold cross-validation and quasi-Poisson regression. Models were stratified by a combined race-ethnicity variable and included controls for major comorbidities, demographic characteristics, and county fixed effects. DATA COLLECTION: We queried data for all Veterans residing in the 50 states plus Washington D.C. during 2016-2020. Veterans were excluded from analyses if they were missing county of residence or race-ethnicity data. Data were then aggregated to the county-year level and stratified by race-ethnicity. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Overall, Veterans' mortality rates were 16% above normal during March-December 2020 which equates to 42,348 excess deaths. However, there was substantial variation by racial and ethnic group. Non-Hispanic White Veterans experienced the smallest relative increase in mortality (17%, 95% CI 11%-24%), while Native American Veterans had the highest increase (40%, 95% CI 17%-73%). Black Veterans (32%, 95% CI 27%-39%) and Hispanic Veterans (26%, 95% CI 17%-36%) had somewhat lower excess mortality, although these changes were significantly higher compared to White Veterans. Disparities were smaller than in the general population. CONCLUSIONS: Minoritized Veterans experienced higher rates excess of mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to White Veterans, though with smaller differences than the general population. This is likely due in part to the long-standing history of structural racism in the United States that has negatively affected the health of minoritized communities via several pathways including health care access, economic, and occupational inequities.

¿Cómo afectan las distintas dimensiones de la precariedad laboral a la salud mental? / How do the different dimensions of precarious employment affect mental health?

Objetivo: Analizar la relación entre la precariedad laboral, medida por dimensiones y como índice multidimensional, y la salud mental de los hombres y mujeres asalariados/as en el País Vasco. Método: Se utilizó una submuestra (n = 3345) de la Encuesta de Salud de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca de 2018 para calcular la prevalencia estandarizada de mala salud mental según el grado de precariedad laboral, medida como escala compuesta y por cada una de sus dimensiones, y realizar modelos de regresión de Poisson robusto para analizar la asociación entre la precariedad laboral, también compuesta y por dimensiones, y la salud mental de la población asalariada. Resultados: La precariedad laboral se asocia significativamente con mala salud mental en hombres (razón de prevalencia [RP]: 3,51; intervalo de confianza del 95% [IC95%]: 2,05-6,01) y en mujeres (RP: 3,42; IC95%: 2,35-4,97). Asimismo, algunas de sus dimensiones constitutivas, como el nivel salarial en ambos sexos (RP: 2,58, IC95%: 1,65-4,03, y RP: 2,29, IC95%: 1,58-3,32, respectivamente) o la vulnerabilidad entre las mujeres (RP: 2,55; IC95%: 1,80-3,61), también parecen relacionarse de manera significativa e independiente con un peor estado de salud mental. Conclusiones: Es necesario el abordaje de la precariedad laboral desde una perspectiva multidimensional, así como conocer la importancia relativa de cada una de las dimensiones que la componen, tanto para la investigación de sus efectos en la salud como para las intervenciones políticas destinadas a luchar contra este fenómeno. (AU)

Objective: To analyse the relationship between precarious employment, measured by dimensions and as a multidimensional index, on the mental health of salaried men and women in the Basque Country (Spain). Method: A subsample (n = 3345) of the 2018 Basque Autonomous Community Health Survey was used to calculate the standardised prevalence of poor mental health according to the degree of precarious employment, measured as a composite scale and by each of its dimensions, and to perform robust Poisson regression models to analyse the association between precarious employment, also composite and by dimensions, and the mental health of the salaried population. Results: Precarious employment is significantly associated with poor mental health among men (prevalence ratio [PR]: 3.51; 95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 2.05–6.01) and women (PR: 3.42; 95%CI: 2.35–4.97). Additionally, some of its constituent dimensions, such as wage level among both sexes (PR: 2.58, 95%CI: 1.65–4.03, and PR: 2.29, 95%CI: 1.58–3.32) or vulnerability among women (PR: 2.55; 95%CI: 1.80–3.61), also appear to be significantly and independently related to poorer mental health status. Conclusions: It is necessary to approach precarious employment from a multidimensional perspective, and to know the relative importance of each of its dimensions, both for research into its effects on health and for policy interventions directed at combating this phenomenon. (AU)

The interaction effects of automation and population aging on labor market.

Automation and population aging are two major forces that will shape the nature of works in the future. However, it is not clear how these forces will interact with each other and affect the labor market. This paper examines the interaction effects of computerization and population aging on the labor market. We found that computerization and population aging have large and statistically significant effects on employment growth but not earnings growth. Also, their interaction terms are statistically significant only for employment growth but not for earnings growth.

Firing discrimination: Selective labor market responses of firms during the COVID-19 economic crisis.

The speed of the economic downturn in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been exceptional, causing mass layoffs-in Germany up to 30% of the workforce in some industries. Economic rationale suggests that the decision on which workers are fired should depend on productivity-related individual factors. However, from hiring situations we know that discrimination-i.e., decisions driven by characteristics unrelated to productivity-is widespread in Western labor markets. Drawing on representative survey data on forced layoffs and short-time work collected in Germany between April and December 2020, this study highlights that discrimination against immigrants is also present in firing situations. The analysis shows that employees with a migration background are significantly more likely to lose their job than native workers when otherwise healthy firms are unexpectedly forced to let go of part of their workforce, while firms make more efforts to substitute firing with short-time working schemes for their native workers. Adjusting for detailed job-related characteristics shows that the findings are unlikely to be driven by systematic differences in productivity between migrants and natives. Moreover, using industry-specific variation in the extent of the economic downturn, I demonstrate that layoff probabilities hardly differ across the less affected industries, but that the gap between migrants and natives increases with the magnitude of the shock. In the hardest-hit industries, job loss probability among migrants is three times higher than among natives. This confirms the hypothesis that firing discrimination puts additional pressure on the immigrant workforce in times of crisis.